She cringed as he grabbed her, then hastily wrapped rope around her wrists, leaving one end long so he could hold it and drag her behind him. They made their way out of the building and onto a narrow dirt track that led through volunteer trees and bushes. In between the overgrowth, she could see leftover pieces of machinery, empty gas tanks, old tires.
He tugged her along, the leaves and branches beneath their feet the only sounds. Every once in a while, he’d pause, seeming to listen to everything around them. In the distance, she could hear traffic, but she knew it was much too far for her to run. She was weak from lack of nutrition, it was one of many techniques he used to keep her from escaping, from fighting back.
They continued to creep along, stopping every few steps for him to listen. As much as she wanted to yell out, ask whoever might be out there to help, she knew it was too big a risk until she was positive someone was there. She had to know there were others nearby before she risked what he’d do to her if she disobeyed.
After several minutes, she finally saw a clearing ahead, nothing but a late model American sedan parked there. It must have been the car that brought them here. And somehow, she knew that if she let him put her in that car again, she’d never be found. He would play with her until it wasn’t enjoyable anymore, then he’d kill her. Her gut told her this moment was one she would never get back. Her mind flipped back over the years of her life, as she took a deep breath and readied herself.
Lila Rodriguez hadn’t been a typical girl, and she hadn’t led a typical life. Too smart, too ethnic, too tarnished by her father’s world of compulsive gambling, Lila had never truly been a child. But she’d been a warrior. She’d gone up against hackers, criminals, law enforcement and banks. She’d been ruthless when necessary, kind when possible, and while she’d only ever loved two people—her mother and Cian—she’d loved them harder than anyone else had ever loved them.
Lila decided in that moment that if she were to die, she’d rather it be here and now than weeks in the future, locked in a cell with the remains of her dignity stripped away. She was okay with her life. She’d done the best she could, she’d loved those worth loving, and now she was done being a victim. She was going to go down a warrior.
Jerking back against the rope, she startled her captor enough that he dropped the rope when it burned against his skin. As he began to turn toward her, she remembered one of the lessons Cian had taught her for self-defense, bringing her knee up, aiming for the beast’s crotch. Because he wasn’t facing her head on, it wasn’t a direct hit, but it was enough to slow him down. He grunted in surprise as she stumbled past him and started to run.
But she only got a few steps before she felt his heavy hand come down on her shoulder. He squeezed so hard she cried out as he swung her around. The crack of the back of his hand hitting her jaw echoed around the clearing, and before everything began to go foggy, she heard his thick Irish brogue as he growled, "You fucking cunt. You’ll pay for that."
* * *
Cian stepped into the clearing as Riley backhanded Lila across the jaw. He leveled the gun at the older man, a rage like he’d never known rolling through every vein, every artery, every cell of his body.
"Touch her again, old man," he snarled. "Just try."
Riley froze, his hand still wrapped around Lila’s upper arm as she slumped in his grip, dazed and battered.
Cian could feel Liam and Finn moving silently behind him. He knew Liam would be looking to set up a shot so he could put a bullet in Riley fast.
"You finally found me, boy," Riley said with a feral grin. “You must be ready to turn the organization over to me, then."
"I’m ready to turn the dirt over on your coffin," Cian replied, stepping closer. Lila made a small sound and Riley pulled her closer, moving her in front of him. He was a psychopath and a coward. Cian’s lip curled in disgust.
"Such a pretty little thing," Riley said, stroking Lila’s hair with one hand as his other arm wrapped around her neck. She was still slightly limp in Riley’s hold, and Cian’s rage burned more intense. "A nice, tight fuck, as well."
Cian growled like an animal, surging forward, his breath sawing in and out of his lungs, his heart hammering, every fiber in his body ready to rip flesh from bone, watch blood splatter, hear cries of despair. He’d never wanted to kill anyone before, but he wanted to kill Michael Riley in the very worst way.
"Ah ah ah." Riley shifted, pulling Lila up so her head was at an awkward angle against his chest. "One good squeeze and her pretty neck snaps. We need to have a negotiation, son. And if you behave, I’ll let you have what’s left of her. But if you don’t, you’ll end up with a dead girlfriend and a city against you. I’ve been making friends, you see. You’ve been very distracted with your brother and your woman. Sloppy of you. I’d think your da would have taught you better. But he was always telling me how soft you’d turned out. I guess he was right."
And that was when Liam stepped out from behind Riley, cocked his gun, and said, "Let her go and I’ll make it quick for you."
Cian lunged, and Lila, who had apparently not been as dazed as she’d seemed, elbowed Riley in the midsection hard. Riley grunted in surprise, loosening his hold just enough for Lila to pull away. Cian reached for her, tugging her hard behind him, as Liam brought the handle of the gun across Riley’s cheek, splitting it wide open as the older man stumbled and fell to his knees.
Within seconds, Finn had stepped out from the other side of the clearing, grabbed Lila, and pulled her to safety, one arm wrapped around her shoulders, the other holding a gun trained on Riley.
Cian’s breath was still coming hard, adrenaline spiking as he looked at Riley, on his knees, arms out to his sides. His cheek dripped a trail of blood and his mouth was twisted in disgust.
"I know you have the balls to do it," he said to Liam. "You were always your da’s favorite."
"No," Liam answered quietly. "His favorite was always himself." Liam’s gaze shot to Cian’s. I can take care of this, he communicated silently.
"No," Cian said out loud. He looked to Lila. “Your choice, baby,” he said softly.
She gave him a dark gaze, her lower face already beginning to swell from the bastard’s knuckles.
“Do it,” she said gruffly.
"Take Lila and Finn,” Cian commanded Liam. “Go back to the car."
"You’re sure?" Liam asked, worry putting a furrow between his brows.
Cian just nodded.
Liam walked to Finn and Lila, who laid her head on Finn’s shoulder, and the three of them disappeared back along the track that led to the main parking lot of the old manufacturing site.
"Hands on your head," Cian commanded as he began to circle Riley slowly.
Riley just chuckled and did as he was told.
"There will be a war tomorrow if you do this now. I’ve made alliances. They’re expecting certain perks, and they’ll come after you when they realize you’ve stolen the opportunity from them."
"I won’t be here tomorrow." Cian squatted in front of Riley, just out of the man’s reach but at eye level. "You made a crucial mistake. You thought I give a fuck about my father’s organization. I’ve been working for years to escape it. I would have given it all to you in a heartbeat if you’d simply asked."
Riley snarled, his lip curling.
Cian’s voice dropped to a murmur, only heard by Michael Riley. "All I’ve ever wanted is to get my brothers out of the life. I’d do any filthy deed, make any backroom deal to achieve that. I’d give up a hundred businesses, sell out a thousand partners. Because the one lesson my father taught me that I listened to was this—Family. Is. Everything. You tried to take mine from me, and that’s the only thing in this world that I’m willing to kill for. Not business. Not power. Not money. Family."
"Then hurry up and fucking do it," Riley snapped.
Cian stood and aimed the gun at Riley’s head. "Gladly," he answered before pulling the trigger.
Chapter 18
Lila h
eard the shot ring out and jumped.
"Shh, shh," Finn consoled as he kept an arm around her. "It’s Okay. Everything’s going to be okay now."
A woman climbed out of what looked like a police sedan at the shaded corner of a parking lot where Finn had led her. Liam hung back in the shadows, midway between the clearing they’d left Cian in, and the car.
"Cian," she cried. "Where is Cian?"
"He’s coming," Finn promised.
"Is she okay?" Lila heard the woman ask.
"She’s been through a lot," Finn answered. "He just hit her. Might have given her a concussion."
The woman opened the passenger door to the car. "Sit her down here. Let me take a look."
Finn helped Lila sit sideways on the car seat, her legs in the doorway. The woman knelt in front of her and spoke in a gentle voice. "Hi. I’m Keira. You’re Lila?"
Lila nodded, her gaze jumping between Finn and Liam. Where was Cian? What if Riley had taken his gun from him? What if that shot had been—
"Where is Cian?" she asked again.
"He’ll be here soon," Keira consoled. "Can I look at your face?"
Lila nodded, and Keira gently prodded the bruise on her jaw. "How many fingers am I holding up?" she asked then.
Lila answered correctly.
"And do you know what year it is?"
"2019, unless he had me a lot longer than it seemed."
Keira chuckled softly. "Nope still 2019. You’re doing great. What’s your full name?"
Lila’s gaze shot to Finn’s and he nodded reassuringly.
"Lila Lee Rodriguez."
Keira looked up at Finn. "I think she’s okay. But she should really be seen by a doctor."
Before she could protest, Lila saw Cian stride out of the brush, his face hard, gun in his right hand, his left clenched in a fist.
She didn’t know how she stood, or where Keira and Finn and Liam went, she only knew that before she could take another breath Cian’s arms were around her, and she was finally safe, finally whole, finally home.
"I’m so sorry, baby," he whispered in her ear over and over again as he held her. "I’m so sorry."
She shook her head against his big, warm chest. She couldn’t speak, but she wanted him to know it wasn’t his fault.
"I looked," he said, his voice cracking. "I looked all day, every day. I’m so fucking sorry."
"I knew you’d find me," she finally told him, pulling back to gaze into his wrecked blue eyes. He’d aged ten years since she’d been gone. She placed her hands alongside his cheeks, covered in stubble, thinner than normal. "I stayed alive because I knew you’d come."
He kissed her then, and if her heart had been able to leave her chest, it would have. It would have leaped into his waiting palm and stayed in the warmth of his grasp forever. Lila knew she would never love another man. Never want another life than one with him. But she also knew that life wasn’t going to start now.
As his lips caressed hers, she let go of everything but that briefest moment in time. Let the feel of him, the taste of him, the scent of him wash over her, bleed into her, become part of her. Because she had to. She knew this dose of Cian would be all she had for a very long time.
"Cian," Keira’s voice was soft in the dark beyond them, "we’re going to run out of time."
Cian pulled back, one hand cupping Lila’s jaw as he gazed into her eyes. "Just one more minute," he said.
He lowered his voice so only she could hear him, his gaze locked to hers. "I escaped lockup. I have to go back."
"No." She gasped.
"It’s the only way for you, Liam, and Finn to be safe. As long as they have me, they’ll leave you be."
"Cian." Her tone was desperate and her heart began to tear right down the middle. The pain was blinding and worse than anything Michael Riley had inflicted.
"Listen to me."
She gazed into his eyes, then. Nothing else mattered. Nothing.
"I. Love. You. More than my own life. You know this. You have to promise me to do what we’ve talked about. Go with Finn and Liam. They’ll keep you safe and take you to Katya while you heal. Then you need to set up in the house I got for you. Staff are waiting and you’ll always be safe there, Lila. I’ve made every arrangement. No one can ever get to you again. And Liam and Katya will be just a boat ride away if you need them."
"I don’t want to leave you," she whispered, even as she knew she must.
He kissed her again and it was so tender, so achingly sweet she thought she might never recover.
"I will always be with you. My heart, my soul, my thoughts. But you have to go on. You have to make a life and be happy. That’s all I want for you, baby. That’s all I’ve ever wanted for you."
She nodded, not because she was agreeing but because it would make him happy.
"Don’t worry about me," he instructed, his hands lingering on her hair, her cheek, her shoulders, her waist. "Just be happy."
Then Finn was leading her away and Liam was saying things before pulling Cian into a tight hug. Lila was dizzy and so fucking broken she barely had time to understand what was happening before she was shuffled into the backseat of a different car with Jimmy at the wheel and Liam in the passenger seat.
She watched out the windshield as Finn spoke to Keira. Cian had disappeared into Keira’s car, and it took everything Lila had not to follow him.
"We’ll find a way to get him out." Liam’s voice was husky, and she realized this was killing him as much as it was her.
"He thinks this is it," she answered, her mind already beginning to spin the possibilities.
"He gave up on himself a long time ago. But I’ll never give up on him."
She reached forward and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Neither will I."
He put his hand over hers for just a moment. "I know you won’t. Thank you. He deserves someone like you to believe in him." His voice cracked then. "He’s the best man I’ve ever known."
Then Finn was climbing in the backseat beside her, and they were speeding to the small airport south of the city where a charter plane waited to take them all out of the country. Lila simply sat, tears rolling down her face as the gritty world outside rolled by, and her heart stayed behind, locked away by the bars of a cold, hard prison cell.
* * *
Keira took a deep breath, then brought her fist back, plowing it into Cian’s jaw before bringing her knee up into his midsection. He grunted and doubled over. She waited while he caught his breath.
"Think that will leave a bruise?" she asked, gesturing toward his waist.
"Maybe. Might not hurt if you did it a couple more times."
Cian had, of course, come up with the story about how Keira had managed to regain control after he’d kidnapped her.
It involved a fight with Michael Riley, as well as Keira using the two men’s distraction to her advantage.
"What about a boot to the chest?" she asked, lifting her thick soled boot slightly and wiggling it around.
Cian shrugged. "Go for it," he answered.
Before he could take it back, she leaned to the side and punched out with her left leg. The force sent Cian stumbling back. Before he could recover, she hit him with another upper cut.
"That should do it," she said as she shook out her bruised hand and he stood with his on his knees, face bleeding from her second punch.
"I think you might have broken my rib," he gasped.
"I think I might have also broken my hand," she replied through gritted teeth. "Are you okay?"
He looked up from under a shock of hair, a small grin on his lips. "No, but it has nothing to do with that kick."
"I’m sorry," Keira told Cian a few minutes later as she put the CPD cell phone back in her pocket. Cian gave her a wry smile while she put handcuffs on him and waited for him to climb into the back of the car.
"Don’t be." He wrapped an arm around his midsection, wincing each time he moved. "Everyone I love in this world is safe now. It wouldn’t have bee
n possible without you. I owe you, Detective. And I always pay my debts."
While she appreciated the sentiment, it was going to be tough for him to pay debts of any sort while he spent the rest of his life in prison. And while Keira knew that in all the ways the government used to judge things, Cian MacFarlane was a very bad man, she was having a hard time seeing that part of him.
"You feel comfortable with the cover story?" he asked as they heard sirens just seconds away.
"Yes," she answered. She had to hand it to him, he’d managed to concoct a story to protect her reputation with a finesse she’d never imagined. Too bad she was going to have to change it. But it was clear that Cian MacFarlane had no sense of self-preservation. If she didn’t help him, who could?
"Can I ask you now, finally?" she said then.
He gave her a half smile. She had a feeling it might be the most he ever smiled again. "I promise to tell you the whole truth. I have nothing left to lose. Ask me anything."
"Did you kill Danny?"
A bitter sound of regret left his chest. "No. I didn’t. I beat him senseless then told him to run far and fast. My guess is he ran to Michael Riley, hoping for protection. But if you need me to confess to it, that’s not a problem."
She felt her face heat in embarrassment. "No. Absolutely not. I’ll prove who did it. I’ll prove I can do the job, too."
His voice was very quiet when he spoke the next words. "It’s probably hard to believe, but I’ve only killed two people in my life, Detective. The man down that dirt trail was the second."
As ridiculous as it might sound to most cops, she believed him. "Riley was a horrible human being, wasn’t he?" she asked after a moment of silence.
A police cruiser came roaring into the far end of the parking lot, lights flashing, sirens wailing like a gathering of banshees.
"He was the worst the world can offer," Cian said simply.
"Then I’m glad you did it." She looked at him for just a moment before opening her door. "And I’m sorry for everything you lost today, Cian."
Touch of Dark: Dublin Devils 3 Page 14